Kong: Skull Island

This is a reboot/retelling of King Kong and (Legendary hopes) it will be the kickoff for the cinematic universe of giant monster movies, including Godzilla.

Stars Brie Larson, Tom Hiddleston, Samuel L. Jackson, Corey Hawkins, Jason Mitchell, and John Goodman. Directed by Jordan Vogt-Roberts (The Kings of Summer).

March 10th, 2017.

I’ve got to say that with that cast it can only end up as “so bad it’s good” or better.

I thought “Dracula Untold” was supposed to be the launch of the Legendary Monster Universe. Was that never true? Or did they just mulligan?

That’s Universal’s project. The next one is supposed to be The Mummy with Tom Cruise.

Oh yeah. I guess King Kong and Dracula in the same universe doesn’t make much sense. I got confused because (according to imdb), Dracula Untold has a Legendary logo on it also. But Skull Island is Legendary/Warner, not Legendary/Universal.

Related, Universal Studios theme park Islands of Adventure is adding an entire new section of the park dedicated to Skull Island. It’s set to open this summer so they are banking a lot on the film.

I disagree. You need to run with this. A vampire giant ape would be a brand-new kind of awesome.

Probably wouldn’t be too hard to figure out where he keeps himself during the daylight hours I guess. Probably tough to find a coffin in his size too. But these are all just little details.

A vampire giant ape would need to drain a LOT of folks to be sated. Or is he stalking other giant apes?

Zombie dinosaurs, obvs.

Kings of Summer had a lot of good stuff, even if it didn’t perfectly come together. I think Universal’s attempt to follow the Marvel route to pop culture dominance is pretty silly (and poorly executed so far, it sounds like) but King Kong could have more to offer if done right.

First trailer shown at SDCC

(Like the first Godzilla teaser, the titular creature is only shown in glimpses.)

Watching this just gave me a kind of vision of a future we will never have.

It’s my understanding that Universal/Legendary are attempting to make a connected universe of monster movies, a la the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The main thing this trailer tells me is that they’re throwing a lot of money at the screen trying.

One of the strengths that Marvel has in their approach is that they can cherry pick from stories developed in another medium, comic books, and develop movies based on the those that get the most traction.

90% of everything is crap, and this is true of comics as well. But hindsight and market forces have filtered out many sub-par offerings. The movies sometimes come out bad, too, but that filtered story selection process gives them an advantage. It’s like watching foreign movies: most French movies are also bad, but those that catch on enough to get an importer’s attention probably have something to offer.

The vision is that these IP holders need a kind of farm league for developing stories, and that they could achieve that by loosening up the reins on copyright. Retain movie and TV rights, and let the world go to town making books, comics, and podcasts exploring those characters. There’s a world of imaginative people out there. Let them find what works.

Of course, I can see how this is impractical or unlikely. But I do believe that copyright control is hurting the chances for these monster movies.

That’s a big Kong.

We’ll they needed to jack him up if he’s gonna take on the big lizard in their mashup movie later. The more traditional sized Kong would get up to about his knees otherwise.

I really love this. Seems like they’re making him an ape-like bipedal monster rather than big Gorilla like Jackson’s Kong. Interesting cast and I like the fact that they human crew is so well armed.

Trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9y6oPka3us

That looks terrific, actually. I went in thinking I wouldn’t have much of opinion, but I’m really excited to see that now. I just assumed it was yet another retelling of the old story.

Goodman, Jackson, giant ape, lots of explosions. I’m in.

Seems like all the movies I’ve been to see over the past couple years have had either hobbits or giant monsters in them, and thats fine by me! This looks like a ton of fun.

Yup! Right there with ya.